Jairam raises performance bar for Jayanthi Natarajan

Ramesh developed his unique style in the last two years bringing transparency in Paryavaran Bhawan, which preferred to be shrouded in secrecy for all these years.
Not only he was available for everybody, who has an issue with the ministry but also made loads of documents public demystifying the decision-making process.

Releasing the documents – available otherwise through the Right to Information Act – in the public domain served key purposes. It took away the sting from green activists’ common refrain that the ministry is not transparent.

It remains to be seen whether Natarajan, who came back to the council of ministers after 13 years, retains that trend or chart a course of her own, because she has to make a fine balance between environment and development.

In the last two years, Ramesh showed how poorly environmental laws were implemented when executing infrastructure and development projects. With his firm and informed decisions he changed the perception that green laws were often relegated to second position.

Being a stickler for law, he was often accused of blocking key projects, but at the end was able to make substantial changes in mining or developmental plans benefiting the environment.

He explained his theory while sanctioning the Navi Mumbai airport with riders. “Its good to start in a dogmatic manner. We bargained, negotiated and compromised,” he had stated.

Acting with an activists’ zeal, Ramesh locked horns with his cabinet colleagues like Kamal Nath, Sriprakash Jaiswal and Sushil Kumar Shinde, Planning Commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia and many chief ministers, primarily on the clearance of mines and power plants.

Ramesh’s proposal to create a “go” and “no-go” area – which incidentally had the support of Jaiswal in the beginning – created most of the rift with Ramesh not sanctioning many coal mines and power plants inside forests.

The tussle led to the formation of a Group of Ministers under Pranab Mukherjee, after which he permitted some projects with key changes in their mining plans. But in certain others like a coal-block inside biodiversity rich Hasdeo-Arand fores he put his foot down.